Northern Alliance troops moved into a military barracks that hours before was in Taliban hands – as looters plundered government offices and prisoners escaped city jails.

But before they left, witnesses said, the Taliban made sure to take with them eight foreign-aid workers – including two American women – imprisoned on charges of spreading Christianity.

Kabul’s capture marks a turning point in President Bush’s war on terrorism – and a key victory for anti-Taliban alliance forces, who were aided by U.S. bombs and commandos.

The United States had appealed to the alliance to stay out of Kabul pending an international agreement on setting up a new Afghan government.

There was no word how the U.S. wishes squared with the alliance’s entry to the city today.

Taliban forces also fell quickly in Afghanistan’s north yesterday. Northern Alliance rebels claimed control of Herat in the west and Taloqan in the northeast as local Taliban warlords appeared to have defected.

An anti-Taliban uprising was reported in the town of Bamiyan, where just months ago, the fanatic regime destroyed two giant, ancient Buddha statues in the face of international condemnation.

The rebels have seized eight northern Afghan provinces in the last 48 hours and control of 40 percent of the nation.

Taliban forces appeared to be retreating farther to the south to regroup in regions where its fanatical leaders enjoy broader-based support among ethnic Pashtun tribes.

The Pentagon is expected to dramatically increase U.S. military activity in Afghanistan and plans to use airfields in the captured cities of Herat, Mazar-e-Sharif and Bagram.

Those bases will serve as staging areas for helicopter raids and commando operations against Taliban and al Qaeda forces in the coming weeks and months, sources said.

Taliban forces were thought to be the strongest around Kabul.

But after hours of carpet-bombing by U.S. B-52 bombers and rocket-propelled grenade attacks by the Northern Alliance, Taliban fighters gave up two critical trench lines and fled in droves.

The convoys of Taliban tanks and personnel carriers that left Kabul last night were headed south toward Kandahar, the movement’s spiritual capital.

The Taliban’s ambassador to Pakistan, Abdul Salam Zaeef, admitted that the Taliban were withdrawing from the northern provinces. “The Islamic Army of the Taliban withdrew from these provinces in an organized way to avoid civilian casualties,” he said.